Desperate measures

At least some of you know I'm not a fan of alternative treatments, or supplements of any kind. Few if any None have shown to be effective by any legitimate clinical research. In my opinion they are just scams designed to separate gullible and desperate individuals from their hard earned money. But I've also never criticized anyone for trying them.

Ok, so maybe I have criticized the lengths some people will go in their use of alternatives treatments. I can certainly understand the desperation of some people, but when I read a post such as the one below, from one of the many lymphoma/leukemia message boards I subscribed to, I can't help but be reinforced in my belief of the lunacy and the futility of it all, as well as the potential danger.

Dear List Members,

I receive[d] my shipment of Essiac tea and made my first batch.

The taste is like bad coffee--not too bad. With this particular formula, you consume the grounds along with the tea. Since the teas is pulverized into fine powder, this is not a problem at all.

I started with the recommended dose of 3 oz 3 times a day.

That's comes to about $128/month. By comparison, I spend about $25 per month on green tea, but at least it doesn't taste like bad coffee. Plus I wouldn't put it in the same category as this garbage.

Anyways, he goes on.

After two days, the lymph nodes in my neck increased in size very dramatiically and painfully. Plus new lymph nodes were popping up under my arms. I found the lymph node enlargement alarming since they rarely ever change size and when they do, not by much.

Lymph node involvement has been present since the beginning albeit at a low level of enlargement. Then I found myself waking up in the middle of the night with the lymph nodes in my neck hurting like hell. I should point out that the nodes on the left side were much more pro- nounced than on the right. The pain would only subside once I got up, and moved around. I'm not much into prescription pain killers and really had nothing on hand to dull or extinguish the pain which was quite severe.

This has continued every night since. About the only thing that quiets the pain is to put a north facing magnet over the area and wait. Eventually, if I'm lucky, the pain subsides enough for me to go back to bed.

A north facing magnet! Unreal! I wonder if he has to sleep facing north as well? Well, if you think that really works, I've got some swamp land to sell you in Arizona.

My hematologist/oncologist has not seen me since this happened though I did have a blood test on Friday. Don't know the results yet.

In trying to figure out what happened, I came to a few tentative conclusions. Essiac is a powerful detoxifier and immune stimulant, particularly, stimulating b and t cells. I believe that the detoxifying effect temporarily overloaded an already clogged up lymphatic system and whatever garbage was collected had no place to go, and not enough fully functioning immune cells to clear away the debris, in addition to adding more lymphocytes to the overall load.

Oh yeah, I'm sure that's the reason. NOT!

The lesson here I believe is to go slow with the Essiac at first, depending on how advanced your leukemia is and how enlarged your lymph nodes are.

CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS? HE'S STILL CONTINUING TO USE THIS STUFF.

Is there a remedy, once the lymph nodes have reacted and are now painfully enlarged? I believe there is. It is a very simple, even elegant solution: rebounding.

I have started health bounces on my well-constructed mini-trampoline for 10 minutes at a time, 3 times a day and am already seeing improvement in shrinking the lymph nodes in my neck that are causing me so much pain. I don't have the expertise or the time to explain how and why this works. For the insatiably curious, I recommend you Google Albert E. Carter and go from there.

Bouncing on a trampoline is going to reduce the size of lymphnodes. He's got to be kidding.

Will post again when there is any new to report.

I can hardly wait, so I will have something else to write about.

And now that I think about it [and just so I get my US health care rant in for the day], could the reason people go to such extremes, be the result of our dysfunctional health care system, or is it just there are way too many stupid and gullible people in this country.

The results are in

And I am iron deficient, big time. [Which would account for my low hemoglobin] Test Result Ref Range IRON 30 59-158 mcg/dL TOTAL IRON BINDING CAPACITY 231 250-420 mcg/dL IRON SAT 13 20-50 % My Ferritin levels were good, but that could be because Ferritin is also an "acute phase reactant", that is sometimes increased with acute or chronic disease. Folate and B12 levels were also within the normal range. The only problem now is determining what is causing the iron deficiency, which in the case of men, is [very] rare. My oncologist has given me a Globin Fecal test to perform, and has scheduled me for a consultation with a colorectal surgeon to discuss performing a colonoscopy, which could be problematic because of my large spleen. In the mean time, I've decided to start taking an iron supplement, it's only the quantity that is causing me some consternation. I've been told by a very knowledgeable person that to overcome an iron deficiency, I need to be taking 300 mg o...

This is just one of those days

It's one of those days you just want to sit around the house and do absolutely nothing, or watch some movies you have recorded. It might even be a good day to read a book, if you were so inclined, which I am not. As you should be able to see from the view out my bedroom window, it is raining outside. The rain started last night, and hasn't let up since. I can't complain too much though, as this is the rainy season, and we do need the rain. Plus Monday's are typically my day off from exercise, so I will surprise everyone, and not complain. I just feel sorry for anyone who might be visiting from, say Argentina, like a friend of mine (fellow MCLer), who happens to be in Cambria today. He might be a little disappointed. Fortunately the rest of the week, when he will be in LA, will be nice, and the real intent of his trip was to visit his son in Tahoe, who works at one of the ski resorts, and ski, so I know he's not complaining too much either. This weather will actually...

When is enough, enough?

Today I learned, Lance Armstrong, the most drug tested athlete in the history of sport, is being accused of doping, again . This time by the US Anti Doping Agency (USADA), who claim they have collected blood samples from him in 2009 and 2010 that were “fully consistent with blood manipulation including EPO use and/or blood transfusions.” Really! What took them so long? The French have been trying to make allegations of drug doping stick for years, ever since he won his first Tour d'France, but to no avail. And now the USADA claims to have evidence to support that claim, and they've waited almost 3 years before releasing this evidence. Needless to say, I am skeptical. Then there's this from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO): Increasing the federal excise tax on cigarettes by 50 cents per pack eventually would increase Medicare and Social Security spending, slightly. Eventually? What is the CBO suggesting here? That we should encourage smoking, because if we don't, in...

Becky said…

Sadly, if this weren't actually true it would be almost comical.

And why north with the magnet?

1:37 PM

Hey, you have got to Google North facing magnets. They even have magnetic beds! Apparently my friends schizophrenic dad was really on to something when he placed magnets all over his body.

1:42 PM

Marc said…

The really tragedy is when you consider the alternative, i.e. conventional therapy [AKA chemotherapy], you can't help but [almost] empathize with them.

7:34 AM

LIVING WITH MCL

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